Diggin’ In: Bluebird fans pursue conservation efforts

Thursday

Aug 1, 2013 at 9:22 AM

When my husband Ken heads for the yard, he’s got good company — bluebirds watching his every move.They follow him to the back yard, hoping he’s going to fill their feeder with the dried mealworms we religiously...

By Kathy Van Mullekom

When my husband Ken heads for the yard, he’s got good company — bluebirds watching his every move.

They follow him to the back yard, hoping he’s going to fill their feeder with the dried mealworms we religiously keep on hand and buy by the 22-pound bulk bag. When he heads to the front garage, they again follow him, perching and watching while he sits and sips cool water.

For more than a decade, eastern bluebirds have been our buddies, staying the year to entertain us with their amusing behavior and sky-blue hues.

Members of the Historic Rivers Chapter of the Virginia Master Naturalists in Williamsburg, Va., feel much the same way about bluebirds. For four years, the group has been involved in a Citizen Science project, working as volunteers to enhance bluebird conservation by monitoring nest boxes along eight trails in nearby cities and counties in Hampton Roads Virginia.

“I became enchanted with the eastern bluebird in Illinois where we had nest boxes in our yard and enjoyed watching the family life of several migratory bluebird pairs,” says Jan Lockwood, coordinator of the monitoring project. She moved to Williamsburg in 2009, trained as a master naturalist and became a volunteer monitor on a bluebird trail.

This season, the birds nested later than usual, she says. Even so, there were 363 young bluebirds fledging from the 204 nest boxes on the trails, according to the group’s report in early July. Bluebirds can nest up to three times during the summer months; the second nesting now underway includes 73 eggs, 149 chicks and an additional 53 fledglings. Once the female begins to incubate a second or third clutch, the male feeds the first fledglings and teaches them to forage for their own food.

“Bluebirds are exceptionally busy during this phase,” says Jan.

“On the trails, we find it difficult to observe since the fledglings don’t return to the nest, but we do see them flying after their parents calling for food.”

In addition to eastern bluebirds, the United States is home to western bluebirds and mountain bluebirds.

Western types like open woodland, both coniferous and deciduous, and they live in yards, burned areas and farmland, from the sea level far up into the mountains, according to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology — birds.cornell.edu.

Mountain bluebirds prefer more open habitats than other bluebirds, and are found in colder regions in winter, according to Cornell.

All bluebirds like insects and berries, especially the fruits from plant species native to their area.

Bluebird Basics

Here’s how to attract and maintain bluebirds in your yard, courtesy of the Historic Rivers Chapter of the Virginia Master Naturalists:

* Provide suitable habitat. Open or semi-open areas with short or mowed vegetation and scattered trees — parks, suburbs, golf courses, schools, farms and forest clearings — all provide ideal conditions for bluebirds to forage for the insects that make up most of their summer/breeding diet.

* Bluebirds are attracted to areas with perches from which to hunt. Consider erecting additional perches using dead tree limbs or garden stakes, etc. throughout your yard.

* Set up a birdbath or other reliable source of clean water for drinking and bathing in all seasons. A heating element can keep the water open in the winter. A simple dripper, which birds love, can be created by hanging a hose over the bath. Locate the bath far enough from brush to protect the birds from predators.

* Mealworms can be fed year-round, especially if the bluebirds are habituated to them during the nesting season. They’re available in bulk from sources like Nature’s Way or Grubco and in smaller bags from local wildlife stores. Freeze-dried worms can also be used. Suet with peanut butter and berries can be offered as well as pre-soaked raisins or berries.

* Install a wooden nest box on a metal pole prior to the nesting season, but only if you’re prepared to check on it regularly. Suggestions for siting the box in your yard and design specs/safety information are available at virginiabluebirds.org (Virginia Bluebird Society.) If Carolina chickadees, tufted titmouse, Carolina wrens or tree swallows nest in your box, enjoy them, too. They are native and protected species and their nests must not be removed.

* Protect the nest box with a snake guard baffle on the mounting pole. The bluebird society also recommends attaching Noel guards around the entrance hole to protect against animal predators such as raccoons, squirrels and cats.

* Provide winter roosts for the bluebirds by cleaning and leaving the nest boxes up after nesting. Bluebirds will roost together in numbers to conserve body warmth on cold nights.

* Keep your cat indoors. It’s healthier for your pet as well as protecting the nest box from a predator.

* Bluebirds are generally tolerant of human activity and are not disturbed for long by cars, lawn mowers, and weekly checking of the nest box, etc. However, do try to dissuade curious people from opening the box or children from constantly playing beside the box. Researchers at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Va., determined that unpredictable noise and movement (Frisbees, dogs, and children) may stress nesting birds.

Berry-Best Plants for Bluebirds

“Given a choice, it would be better to plant a native species rather than a non-native or invasive,” says bluebird enthusiast Jan Lockwood.

Here are the plants bluebirds like best, according to native plant experts:

Read what the National Wildlife Federation says about the adverse effects of planting non-native plants, like white mulberry, for songbirds to feed on in the blog post “Nonnative Plants: Ecological Traps” at blog.nwf.org/2013/01/nonnative-plants-ecological-traps.

Learn more about bluebirds with the North American Bluebird Society at nabluebirdsociety.org

(Follow Kathy Van Mullekom at Facebook@Kathy Hogan Van Mullekom, Twitter@diggindirt and Pinterest@digginin; on her blog, Diggin@RoomandYard.com, or email her at kvanmullekom@aol.com.)

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